SOMERSET COUNTY CHESS ASSOCIATION

Somerset
Chess
News (2018-19 Season)

19/09/2018 - Somerset won the Open Section of
the WECU Jamboree held on 15/09/2018 with 7.5 points ahead of
Devon on 6.5 and Cornwall on 4. Somerset were less successful in
the Graded Section, which was won by East Devon. Thanks are due
to Guy Greenland for organizing the teams. Guy has also agreed
to act as Match Captain for a Somerset team in the 2018-19
WECU Counties Championship.

29/08/2018 - The new season's Somerset League
fixtures are now published (see link above). The club contacts page has also been
updated.

29/08/2018 - Time controls. Clubs are reminded
that the 2018 AGM decided to change the default time control to
90 minutes per game (i.e. no final 15 minute session). Although
this is a guillotine finish it is still technically classed as
quick-play and the usual quick-play finish rules apply in the
final 2 minutes. However, the AGM also decided to allow matches
to use a different time control if both teams agree. The
principal purpose of the added flexibility is to permit the use
of incremental time controls in accordance with the standard 2018 FIDE Laws of Chess. (In
the January 2018 Laws quick-play finish time controls have been
down-graded to the same status as a chess variant.) If an
incremental time control is used, 80 minutes plus 10 seconds per
move from start of game is recommended (as used successfully in
the Bristol League).

19/07/2018 - Jon Underwood from Devon points
out that next season will be the 100th time the County
Championships have been contested (more than 100 years old but
there were some wars etc...). It would be very sad if this is
the year that Somerset drop out of the Championships for want of
a match captain. Is there any Somerset player willing to
take on this role? As noted below (07/06/2018) your webmaster can help anyone
interested in taking on this post by supplying player contact
details.

07/06/2018 - Your Results Officer and
Webmaster would like to step down from both roles at the 2019
AGM. He is of course willing to provide any necessary help,
training and on-going support for anyone interested in taking on
either role. Contact Gerry
for more details.

07/06/2018 - The post of Somerset match
captain is currently vacant. This post is extremely
important and needs to be filled urgently if Somerset are
to field a County team next season. The first County match is
the Jamboree on 15th September. Your webmaster can help anyone
interested in taking on this post by supplying player contact
details.

07/06/2018 - At the 2018 SCCA AGM held on the
4th June the following decisions were made: a)
Quick-play finishes are no longer mandatory and clubs may agree
an alternative time control, e.g. one with 10 second increments
as used in the Bristol League. b) The default time control was
changed from 15 minute quick-play finish to a 90 minute per game
'guillotine' finish. c) The default time, i.e. the elapsed time
before a game may be declared lost by default in the event of a
player not turning up, was set to 30 minutes. d) In Divisions 2
and 3 the restriction that a player may not play for more than
one team in the same Division was changed to 'no player may play
for more than one club'. (The purpose of the latter is to help
clubs field teams where otherwise they may have difficulties
through shortage of players.) Not all of these changes are
uncontroversial.